1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to file and application scanning techniques and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for accelerating load-point scanning.
2. Description of the Related Art
To protect computers from malicious software, viruses, and other files and executable code that may be undesired by a user, scanning software is utilized to detect and remove such undesirable files and software. Generally, upon the “boot-up” of a computer, at the user's request, at user logon, at scheduled times or in response to system events, scanning software scans each of the active executable software applications as well as files being used at that moment. The intent of the scan is to detect any unwanted or undesirable executable software or files that have been installed on the system. Such scans may occur at other so-called “load-points” during computer use. These load points include items the system loads automatically such as Run Key entries (which run when the system starts or the user logs on), services (which often start when the system starts), drivers (which often start when the system starts), Browser Helper Objects (which run as needed by the web browser), command handlers (which run when a user “double clicks” on a file with a given extension such as .exe, .com, .bat, .doc, etc.), and many more items. One such scanning software that provides such load point scanning is NORTON's QUICKSCANS, generally a portion of NORTON INTERNET SECURITY; NORTON ANTIVIRUS, and other SYMANTEC SECURITY products, which is manufactured and distributed by Symantec Corporation.
Although scanning at each load-point and/or at the user's request provides substantial protection for the computer and its user, such repeated use of scanning software consumes a substantial amount of computing time to examine every load-point, resolve each entry to determine what files are referenced, and scan the target files. Although it is rare that load-points or the files they point to are modified between scans, the scanning software will scan the files anyway. Such scanning may impact a user's computing experience by slowing computer performance or extending the load time for software.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus that accelerates the scanning process, especially for load-point scanning.